Thx for the reply!
Well, what's confusing is that the State of Michigan didn't withhold any tax. Due to a reciprocal agreement between Michigan and Illinois, only Illinois wages appear on his Federal and State copies of the W-2 form. However, the City or Local copy of the W-2 shows Local Wages and Local Income Tax withheld for the City of Detroit. Unfortunately, the City of Detroit does not seem to offer refunds or provide tax credits. This is the credit he would like to take, presumably via his Illinois tax return.
The Illinois Schedule CR IL-1040 Instructions indicate that a person can claim a credit for income taxes paid to another state or city on income received while being a resident of Illinois. However, the following instruction seems self-contradictory.
Here is the link to Illinois Schedule CR IL-1040 Instructions:
https://tax.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/tax/forms/incometax/documents/currentyear/individual...
On page 2, for Column B – Non-Illinois Portion, under Income, it says:
Line 1: Wages, salaries, tips, etc.
Enter the amount of wages not shown as Illinois wages on the state copy of the W-2 form(s) you received. Do not include wages taxed by another state if they are also shown as Illinois wages. Also, do not include any wages you received for working in Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, or Wisconsin while you were an Illinois resident, unless you paid tax to a city or county on these wages.
He received wages for working in Michigan but taxed as Illinois wages due to the reciprocal agreement, and he paid tax to the city of Detroit. The first sentence seems to indicate he should not enter his wages in Column B (and thus not receive credit), while the last sentence says he can because he paid tax to a city on the wages.
In his W-2, he has Illinois wages (box 16) and Local wages (box 18). Even though the numbers in boxes 16 and 18 are the same, does "enter the amount of wages not shown as Illinois wages" apply only to box 16 and not box 18?
If he uses TurboTax, he will be filing Federal and Illinois tax returns. Since there is no Michigan state tax withheld, he was told that he only needs to file an IL tax return. Will TurboTax properly handle his situation and take care of the credit for Detroit tax, or does he have to file the IL state tax in paper form?
